Inside the Alliance Theatre’s Scene Shop

Fall internship at the Alliance Theatre has been a time of informative and entertaining career exploration for our participants. With the help of Olivia Aston Bosworth, the Alliance Theatre’s Family Programs Manager, the participants were able to craft the kind of individualized experience they wanted while working for the theater. Taking into account the participants input, Bosworth set up workshops and meetings with professional actors, stage managers, production managers, and scene shop carpenters. In this way the whole group could get a feel for each job.

Our last visit of this semester before the new year was an exceptionally special one. We were invited to go to the the Alliance Theatre’s scene shop which is located off-site from the actual theater itself. The scene shop is where the Alliance’s carpenters and scenic artists create any and all items needed for the stage. They create small props all the way up to entire stages that can functionally move and rotate like the set from the production of Moby-Dick that we had the pleasure of seeing firsthand!

While at the scene shop we worked with Bosworth and her co-worker who set up a carpentry demo for our participants. Their goal was to build a moving cart with casters that the carpenters could later use to move around tools and other heavy items. Essentially it was to be used as a low lying dolly. For some of our participants it was their first time using power tools, drill bits, clamps, casters, nuts and bolts! Though they had support from their TCS staff members and the Alliance staff, the more experienced members of the group assumed leadership roles and began assisting their less experienced peers. Everyone was able to accomplish the task and in the end they got to sign their work and display it for all to see and use!